CSE305 Programming Languages Notes are based primarily on Sebesta text. Quotes are from Sebesta text, unless otherwise noted. Sources other than Sebesta will be clearly indicated.

Do you need to study programming languages? You already know at least two languages: Java and C++. Things never change: Java and C++ will always be the major languages. There are other languages? But nobody really uses them, do they?

Quick survey: what languages have your written programs in? Pascal Perl Prolog PHP BASIC Python SQL Scheme Lisp Modula3 Java C++ WebSphere C MIPS assembly C# Visual Basic Smalltalk

“Increased capacity to express ideas.” Languages tend to facilitate certain kinds of problem solving. Knowing more than one language equips you with different problem solving skills. –richness of primitive types, user-defined types, polymorphism, inheritance –atomic data, structured data, objects, generics The problem solving concepts can be transferred from one language to another. –using arrays to simulate records

“Improved background for choosing appropriate languages.” Languages tend to facilitate certain kinds of problem solving. Knowing what language offers good support for problem solving in a particular domain. Fortran is very good for scientific number crunching Prolog is very good for rule-based reasoning

“Increased ability to learn new languages.” Understanding the essential commonalities aids in learning new languages. For example: Structure theorem (Bohm & Jacopini, 1966) tells us that sequencing, selection and iteration are sufficient control structures. Different languages provide these in different ways: syntactic form is not what’s important – look for underlying expressiveness.

“Better understanding of the significance of implementation.” Programmers make better use of language features when they understand implementation issues. For example: understanding how recursion is implemented leads to judicious use of it. For example: understanding how “last call optimization” works allows programmers to write efficient recursive programs, in languages that support this optimization.

“Overall advancement of computing.” Deeper understanding of benefits & drawbacks of language design can help promote more sensible language choices over “more comfortable” ones.

Why do you choose to use a particular PL? Comfort: you already know it. Cost: it is free/inexpensive to acquire. Efficiency: it executes quickly. Environment: it has good development tools. Appropriateness: it is well-suited to your domain. No choice: you boss told you to. Support: the language is well-supported. Robustness: it is easy to write robust programs in it (or: it is difficult to write fragile programs in it).

Things to think about Readability Writability Reliability Cost

Readability are programs written in a language easy to understand a product not only of programmer discipline but also of language facilities (e.g. variable names in early BASIC could be one letter or one letter and one digit).

Are there too many ways to express the same idea? –x = x + 1; x += 1; x++; ++x; Are there many arbitrary restrictions on what you can do? (IBM vs VAX) –A Reg1, memory_cell –AR Reg1, Reg2 –ADDL op_1, op_2 Context-dependence: a + b in C –meaning is different if a and b are pointers than if they are not.

Writability How easy is it to model a problem domain in a language? What sorts of abstraction mechanisms does the language support?

Reliability Type checking –static vs. dynamic –strong vs. weak Exception handling –generally considered very useful to deal with unexpected or out-of-the-ordinary runtime events

Cost Acquisition cost Training cost Cost of writing programs in language Compilation cost Execution cost Cost of poor reliability (think of liability for safety- critical applications) Cost of maintenance Cost of portability